algirau

My Co-founder got his EB1 while in PostDoc. Not a Nobel laureate but he has 50 peer-reviewed publications. Went on to become a Faculty Research Professor in Physics Department. He has PhD and MBA when applied for EB1. He actually has helped other great researchers get their EB1 as well, part of it has to do with the petition and how genuine and how strong of a case you make for making an impact on USA. Also, things like being an Editor or reviewer for academic journals, establishing a track record for guiding MS students on way to PhD, strong publication record, etc.

"phenotypically similar"

Please be aware this is your bias, your POV. You can't use it to prove your own point.

PhD is nothing similar to your connotation of Ivy League grad. The former requires years of sacrifice, ruined relationship, and missed experiences to master an esoteric part of science. The latter has the connotation of privilege.

Being a YC founder, I am not an Ivy league grad but a PhD drop-out who happens to have the combination of domain expertise, technical understanding, and charm.

Your poor conclusion of "ivy league grad" is ridiculous. If anything YC looks for doers not those that have.

Batteries at "the end of their life" have 80% of their capacity remaining. There is no reason why they can't be put to use, as long as adequate battery management software is implemented.

I don't see any performance metrics.

Lithium recycling technology. Electrochemical storage may be a renewable technology to store energy but the raw materials are not infinite.

Love to old school charm. Dinner jackets are required but if you forget your they have some for you to wear! I went once and they burned my steak, but it was quickly replaced with one that was perfectly cooked and two free glasses of high end champagne. Love that place.

What? This is saying all of Jefferson Parish, roughly 50% of NOLa metro, is uninhabitable. Below sea level, yes. Uninhabitable no.

Explanation of claim: Magnetization of graphite makes lithium diffusion easier in anode

Effect: Half-cell data shows energy capacity of anode increase up to 3X

What time means to real people: The anode is roughly 20% of the LiB, thus a 3X increase in capacity would equate to 3x20% = 60% improvement in capacity of a real battery.

My take: HORSESHIT

Why???? #1: Half-cell demonstrations, like this one, do not translate well as the cathode used in pure-lithium metal, essentially providing an infinite source of lithium. In a full-cell test you use a metal oxide with lithium-ions pre-intercalated, essentially providing a limited source of lithium. Unfortunately lithium gets eaten up in side reactions by the electrolyte and the active material (SEI, solid-electrolyte-interphase). Thus infinite lithium sources via half-cell testing are not good final test. They are only used for screening.

Why??? #2: Tortuosity has NOTHING to do, albiet directly, with how much lithium can intercalate with carbon in graphite. What it effects is the path that lithium has to diffuse through the electrode - it effects charge/discharge rates. Essentially, magnetization should charge/discharge easier (i.e. at lower voltages) because the lithium can navigate easier through the electrode. Why no reporting on C rate?

My take: I suspect what is happening is that the same charge/discharge rate can be attained at a lower voltage because magnetization of graphite with iron oxide additives make it easier for lithium to navigate in the electrode. Because it is a lower voltage, less lithium is eaten up by electrolytes breaking down in SEI. However, I'd bet you my mother's rusty ball-sack this amounts to tiddlywinks when the lithium is limited in a full-cell battery.

Nice try but nothing matters with out full-cell testing, energy density reporting AND cyclability reporting.

They don't discuss if the preferred shares are participating or not. Makes a huge difference. If non-participating, typically investors can elect to convert preferred into common.

insider trading =/= failure in regulatory compliance.

You'd remove the whole point of gaining an edge, rendering the trade moot.

It solves the chicken-egg problem by having a critical mass of EVs to justify a critical mass of chargers.

On street parking can be done rectified (in theory) via inductive/wireless charging fed from a solar energy source.

We have not solved the Navier-Stokes equation for non general cases. This equations describes how the velocity, pressure, temperature, and density of a moving fluid are related.

If everything was already answered, then why offer $1M to solve an equation? Fun?

this 10000X.

Im a guy that took graduate thermodynamics from the guy who discovered the statistical mechanics of the hydrophobic effect. There may be only 100 people in the world who are qualified to even describe water's molecular structure at varying conditions.

Got me to being a CTO of a nanotechnology start-up. Academia is not the only end goal.

Feyman Nano is not doing anything new or innovative. In the materials world this is old technology with a very old spin.

This isn't as juvenile as a dislike. I spent my PhD on the technology for this company and licensed it from a tier 1 university and started the company. This individual (hindsight is 20/20) coerced me to make probably the worst decision by giving him fully vested equity only to leave for a different opportunity after and yet wish to have a say on issues that are Board issues.

Again this post was a message to any founder finding a partner. Things may be rosy in the beginning but if you are paired with someone who fundamentally is only motivated by money they will always choose their own interest over the company. Even if that means actively sabotaging and slandering.

Again I do not want to air dirty laundry but I was landed the unfortunate worst case scenario.

Anyone who thinks that I am being one sided is allowed to have that prerogative. I cannot give full details but please imagine the worse situation you can get into with a first partner, I am talking them trying to smear your reputation and sabotaging the company in order to get their way, not just some friendship that went bad. Please proceed with caution and do not be overly trustworthy.

If anyone wants to know more I would be happy to talk directly. But I'm sharing this because founders with genuine intentions and the ones who get damaged the most by individuals like this.

I think this applies closely.

I am surprised that the tendency to compulsively lie is not also in the Wikipedia definition.

I tend to agree.

What is most infuriating this person is just not smart enough to be a good psychopath, if there is such a thing as a "good psychopath".

His lies just put him into a smaller and smaller box. And not trying to be an intellectual elitist but this individual thinks he is the most intellectual and clever person to walk on the plant yet can even understand how much more intellect I and my team members have over him. Again I'm not trying to seem arrogant but arguing with someone who does not know how dumb they are, and who is poorly lying is very infuriating.

Ever read an email where the person's grammar was so bad it hurts your head? Witnessing a person trying to outsmart you via email by writing in old english with excessive use of semi-colons really hurts your brain.

That is a good point. It is more of a spectrum. I try not to use this term lightly but I have never met a person with such a disregard for their own equity. They boost their ego by constantly speaking about themselves in a grandiose way, yet have achieved nothing of substance. It seems they have this reality built through consistently lying that they wish to project on the world. I mean bold easily discoverable lies. These lies are being uncovered and this person is now being found out, causing them to act in malicious ways. Being a rational human being and engineer by training, it was juts inconceivable how to go though daily life like this. I try to live in objective reality, but this was just a fantasy world to this guy.

I have never really met "crazy" or understood in a direct sense what "psychopathic" meant but to associate certain word I would attribute the following as to what I mean as psychopathic with this individual: "a pathological liar", "self-destructive", "narcissistic", "irrational", "vitrolic". I mean this person thought he was the next coming of Marc Andreessen.

In an objective sense it is unfortunate that there are actually people who live like this. But I wrote this article to warn start-up founders that are just starting out looking for a co-founder or a "mentor". I was just a PhD engineering student when I started, I did not know how to adequately gauge business prowess or to read through a person like this.

I can say I've learned what NOT to do and what NOT to be like. Now I am a less trusting and more guarded person.

Well to be frank, I am sharing an experience dealing with a problem member in a 5 person startup. You are correct it is an anecdote. One I want to share in hopes no one has to go through a similar issue. Your victimization does not mean every member-company transgression is due to the company. Minority members that have insider information can do serious damage and not care of the legal ramifications when there are obvious consequence to them.

The global energy storage market is and will continue to be driven by electric vehicles (no pun intended!) and consumer electronics. For these applications a faster charge/discharge is nice to have, a non-flammable material is nice to have but a high energy density is a MUST HAVE which Aluminum-ions don't.

My interpretation of a big deal is relative to the number of people it will positively influence. I wouldn't consider this a big deal, and in fact have heard the same claim at least once per month (ex. Titanium dioxide nanotube batteries http://www.gizmag.com/quick-charge-li-ion-battery/34347/).

I believe we will see it much earlier than 2020. The DOE has mandated that they want to see lithium-ion batteries 5X in capacity and 5X cheaper by 2020.

I think it can be done. If would happen much faster if we manufactured here and did not have to worry about international logistical and quality assurance associate with Chinese manufacturing.

Unfortunately, there are several items that interfere with maximizing the 10X. Then anode is only ~16% of the entire battery, so increasing the anode energy density by 10X does not translate directly to 10X battery life. You must also consider the cathode, and separator which can hinder this. Remember the 10X is a "theoretical maximum". It is important to constantly increase the theoretical maximum energy density. Translating the theoretical to an actual energy density is about downstream processing - see how Tesla increases battery efficiency each year by make the processing more efficient.

Amprius was promising 10X increase, but once they reach ton-scale manufacturing they were only able to get a 30-50% increase. I am sure they will be able to gradually increase close to the 10X maximum by making processing more efficient.

tl;dr battery material processing into the actual battery is where most of the batteries lose there performance. Step (1) Increase theoretical energy density by finding new material; Step (2) focus on battery processing to approach theoretical maximum.

Battery innovation is actually bottle-necked by the fact that over 90% of all anode materials are produced in China. So global adoption is ultimately dictated if manufacturing in China follows suit.

Unlike Americans, where we innovate with a short time horizon, China innovates and invest for generations (25-100 years). Thus, once a technology has been chose to be invested in overseas, the Chinese go "all-in".

The current paradigm shift is that Chinese anode material manufacturers are switching from graphite based electrodes to silicon nanoparticle based electrodes due to the fact that silicon nanoparticles have a theoretical energy density of ~4,000mAh/g, a 10x increase when compared to graphite which is only ~350mAh/g. There has been substantial research on silicon based lithium-ion batteries in the US for the past 7 years; it is now hitting a true inflection point.

This is one of the few "break-though" battery chemistries that is now entering full scale production - Panasonic is producing an 18650 cell made of silicon used by Tesla. *(see also Amprius, Envia,XG Sciences, etc.)

Tl;dr battery adoption is limited by adoption by Chinese manufacturers which control over 90% of the global anode material manufacturing. Silicon nanoparticles are taking over.